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- The “QAnon Shaman” from the Capitol riot now feels that Trump hoodwinked him, his lawyer said.
- Jacob Chansley currently is in a Washington, DC, jail and awaiting trial.
- “He has come to grasp that fact that the former president really didn’t love him,” his lawyer said.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman” who became a symbol of the US Capitol riot, now feels that former President Donald Trump played him, his lawyer told The Daily Beast Wednesday.
Chansley – who carried a spear, wore bull horns, and covered himself in war paint at the January 6 riot – was arrested and charged with civil disorder, obstruction, and disorderly conduct on January 9.
QAnon is a baseless far-right conspiracy theory that believed that Trump, as president, was secretly fighting a “deep state” cabal of satanic pedophiles and cannibals. Trump has often retweeted QAnon figures and in August 2020 called the movement’s followers “people who love our country.”
Many QAnon adherents thought the Capitol riot would be “The Storm,” in which Trump would cleanse Washington of its elites.
But Chansley, who is currently in custody in Washington, DC, while awaiting trial, is now appearing to turn on Trump.
"He has come to grasp that fact that the former president really didn't love him and that all the bulls--- about Trump's army and all the social media-driven conspiracy theories led to a lot of the vulnerability," Albert Watkins told The Daily Beast.
"Has my client gone through a wholesale repudiation on his previous beliefs? No. It's part of an ongoing process. But he has recognized his role and my client has bellied up and realized he needs to do right by his country."
ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP) (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
Watkins added that Chansley felt he had fallen for Trump's "propaganda machine."
Watkins told The Daily Beast that the president's decision not to accept his request for a presidential pardon was the final straw, but that Chansley's apparent epiphany about Trump had been coming for weeks.
Watkins told the Arizona TV station KSDK on January 21 that Chansley felt "duped" by Trump.
"He regrets very, very much having not just been duped by the president, but by being in a position where he allowed that duping to put him in a position to make decisions he should not have made," Watkins said.
And on January 28, Chansley offered to attend Trump's impeachment trial to testify against the president.
As Insider's Jacob Shamsian reported, Chansley is refusing to eat in prison because the food is not organic. Watkins said his client had not eaten in a week and had lost 20 pounds in custody as a result.
Watkins told the court Wednesday that Chansley's idol is Mahatma Gandhi and that he is a "gentleman" who "catches insects and releases them outside."
Chansley, who is from Phoenix, Arizona, served in the US Navy between 2005 and 2007.